


Ribbons

by deliciouslemon



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 09:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4740752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciouslemon/pseuds/deliciouslemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Mechon attack on Colony 9, Shulk looks back and remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ribbons

**Author's Note:**

> i thought a lot about that heart to heart where dunban tells sharla about the time he and fiora fled from the mechon to bionis leg and then this happened

Shulk was six when the Mechon attacked the colony. He doesn’t like to think about it. But given all that has happened, how could he not?

He remembers the siren- how it sounded late one Saturday afternoon, making him look up from his book in confusion, for he knew it was a siren and that it must be _something bad_ , but it wasn’t the siren he was used to. And if it wasn’t the debris siren then what _could_ it be?

He remembers Dickson picking him up and carrying him off towards the military district before passing him off to a woman with an older child. She told him that he was going to be okay, they would make it to the shelter, and everything would be fine. Her voice was steady, but her hand was not as it pulled him along. He remembers her hand. Her cold, shaking hand.

The shelter was crowded and noisy, with defense force officials struggling to record names and the anxious babble of the civilians, pierced by pleas to open the shelter, my mother my brother my daughter my _anyone_ is still outside you can’t just leave them there, and the chaos of it all made Shulk want to cry.

He’s not sure how long it took for him to notice. What he was doing or thinking until then, he doesn’t remember. But he remembers the way his heart seemed to stop, the way the world faded out. The way none of the noise, none of the chaos, _nothing_ else that was going on seemed to matter anymore, because how could it? How could _anything_ matter?

He couldn’t see Fiora.

He asked everyone he could. It was hard to get them to understand him, panicked as he was, but once they did everyone’s response was the same. No one had seen Fiora. And they hadn’t seen Dunban, either.

The two weren’t in the shelter.

He tried to reassure himself as best as he could. There was no _way_ Dunban would let anything happen to his little sister. Dunban was big and strong, and he'd protect her. He'd keep her safe.

Sure, they were trapped outside with the Mechon, but maybe they’d found somewhere hidden and somewhere safe, like how Shulk was safe in the shelter, and they were okay and alive and once the Mechon left they’d meet up and everything would be alright. 

He even started to believe it.

Time passed, the Mechon left the colony, and the shelter opened. The residential district was closed off while damage to the area was assessed and the reconstruction begun, and so Shulk sat outside Dunban’s house and waited for him to come home, Fiora in tow. But a day went by, and Fiora and Dunban were still nowhere to be seen.

Shulk’s and Dickson’s house was undamaged, but that was hardly a comfort. And there beside the book he had been reading was the ribbon he used as a bookmark. The ribbon Fiora tied around his birthday present from last year.

The next several days both flew past and dragged on, as Shulk sat on the floor of his room, running a faded pink ribbon between his fingers.

And now he sits on the bench in Outlook Park, several years on, remembering. But though back then she _had_ come back, and he had cried and cried and laughed and tied the ribbon to her wrist, and made her promise she’d never leave him like that again, this time would be different.

He doesn’t like to think about it. But how could he not?

And as he thinks about that week he pictures a lifetime of empty stares at faded ribbons, and he _refuses_. And over the voices in his head crying out for her, a new voice begins to make itself heard.

_Make them pay_ , it hisses. _Make them pay for all they have done!_

_Yes_ , he answers, heart cold and his thoughts colder. _I will_.

**Author's Note:**

> all the colony 9 squad got a mention except reyn.... i'm sorry reyn ily but i couldn't find a decent way to shoehorn you in here you woulda just broken the flow man
> 
> anyway i hope this is ok and i hope you liked it!! thank u for reading!!!


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